Blocker: 700 Post

Late on a weekday afternoon, a dirty Benz pulls into Will’s Automotive, possibly on its last diesel-fueled legs. A fellow has a pensive smoke and a cup of coffee at a table outside the Paris Café, while across the way, a surly facilities worker bangs on a standpipe on an outside wall of the USA Hostel. A handful of young Asian visitors wheel their luggage to toward the budget inn, while those already checked in try to hail taxis flying down the one-way street. Many of the women travelers wear cute pink ballcaps.

Across the way, a framed letter in the window of Caffe Bella Venezia announces that Jim and Debbie Burton of Las Vegas enjoyed a marvelous meal here during the week of May 7. Further east, dunch-eaters occupy the few tables inside Pearl’s, one of San Francisco’s finest low-profile burger joints. And at Indonesian restaurant Borobudur, on the corner of Post and Jones, the staff awaits the evening’s gulai kambing-seeking crowd. Clearly, there’s some good eating on this block.

Of course, any business with the good sense to still call itself “Mack’s” wins our vote, hands down. The venerable-looking dry cleaners with the gruff handle up the street boasts an aged sign that recalls an era of presidential fireside chats on the parlor radio, and it makes the name of the place look even better.

A slew of MUNI lines – the 2 Clement, the 3 Jackson, the 4 Sutter, even the weekends-only 76 Marin Headlands – service this part of Post St. And who knew this block was a cog in the 49 Mile Drive machine? We sure didn’t. It’s an eastbound thoroughfare of the highest order, with the vehicle traffic to prove it.

Post Street Towers, Hotel Beresford Arms, and large, near-centennial apartment buildings with names such as St. Francis Terrace and Warrington tone up the block’s level of sophistication. “Bush/Cheney ‘04” placards in the 12th floor window of Post Street Towers taunt area progressives. A small fleet of parked scooters and motorbikes sit in front of the Aromatic Day Spa.

This block of Post offers many things to many people. Sweat pants are not on the list.